Go Go Power Rangers #12 (Shattered Grid Tie-In) Review

Go Go Power Rangers has had an interesting time being a tie-in for the Shattered Grid event. Unlike most tie-ins this series is still telling its own story. What is connecting this series with Shattered Grid is the Coinless Universe’s Kimberly Hart has terrorized the Mighty Morphin squad as the Ranger Slayer. Things now have changed as Coinless Kimberly has returned to her normal, Drakkon hating, self. While she has been returned to normal there is no way for her to currently return to the Coinless Universe to take down Drakkon. Will she find a way back? Let’s find out with Go Go Power Rangers #12.

Writer: Ryan Parrott

Artist: Dan Mora

Colorist: Raul Angulo

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: At Drakkon’s castle Coinless Kimberly takes out all of the Tyrannosaurus Sentries guarding the place. Coinless Kimberly then fires a shot at Drakkon but he easily catches the arrow.

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Drakkon and Coinless Kimberly talk about how they’ve been fighting for years now. Drakkon tries to convince Coinless Kimberly to join his side. Kimberly says no and fires three arrows at Drakkon. Drakkon decides to cast a spell on Coinless Kimberly that places her under his control. He then gives Coinless Kimberly the Bow of Darkness and gives her the title of his Ranger Slayer.

In the present Jason tells his dad that he has to be honest with his mom about what is going on with him. Jason’s dad does not want to admit the truth. Jason reminds him that they are a family and they look out for each other. Jason’s dad sits down and ready to talk.

At the Command Center Kimberly finds the Ranger Slayer with Billy on the ground. Kimberly quickly morphs before the Ranger Slayer can explain what is going on. Before they fight the Ranger Slayer says that she needs to do something for everyone and when she is done she will be out of the way.

Alpha suddenly sends Kimberly an alert. The Ranger Slayer tells her counterpart that Kimberly should go deal with the problem rather than get knocked out by her. The Ranger Slayer teleports away while telling Kimberly to take care of herself.

After helping Billy back up they join the others to learn about the monsters attacking the city. The Power Rangers quickly morph and enter their Zords.

As soon as they get to the scene the Power Rangers combine their Zords to form the Megazord. Even with the Megazord the Power Rangers are overpowered by the two monsters.

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Elsewhere the Ranger Slayer finishes digging the Gravezord out of the rubble.

In the shadows Matthew Cook watches the Ranger Slayer. The Ranger Slayer easily finds Matthew and confronts him. She takes off his helmet and Matthew notices she is a future Kimberly. Coinless Kimberly tells Matthew that not telling him her secret was one of her bigger regrets.

Back at the fight the Megazord continues to be overwhelmed by the monsters. The Gravezord suddenly shows up and to help out. The Ranger Slayer immediately combines the Megazord and Gravezord together to create the Mega-Gravezord, while revealing she is doing so remotely.

At a gym Tommy Oliver is training as the Ranger Slayer confronts him. The Ranger Slayer fires an arrow but Tommy dodges it and tries to fight her. The Ranger Slayer easily dodges his attack and connects with one her arrows. The arrow that hits Tommy shows him his future life as a the Green Power Ranger, including his death, as The Ranger Slayer is trying to give him a second chance. When Tommy is done with his vision he notices that the Ranger Slayer is already gone.

Back at the fight the Mega-Gravezord is able to easily put up a fight against the monsters. Using the Mega-Gravezord’s Inferno Blaster the Power Rangers are able to destroy the monsters.

Elsewhere Grace Sterling finds the Ranger Slayer. Grace tells the Ranger Slayer that she going to help her.

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On the Moon, Rita states she is going to have to do something she swore she would never do to take down the Power Rangers.

At the Ernie’s Juice Bar Matthew reveals he knows that Kimberly, Zack, Jason, Billy and Trini are the Power Rangers. He promises that he won’t tell anyone their secret. They act like they don’t know what Matthew is talking about. Matthew says he just wants them to be honest with him for once. When none of the five say anything Matthew just walks off. End of issue.

The Good: Ryan Parrott delivered an exhilarating ending to “The Ranger Slayer” story arc. In wrapping up this latest story arc Parrott was also able to close out certain sub-plots he has been working on developing. Those sub-plots added to how strong Go Go Power Rangers #12 was.

As with the rest of “The Ranger Slayer” story arc the Coinless Universe version of Kimberly Hart was the star of Go Go Power Rangers #12. With the opening of this issue Parrott was able to wrap up Coinless Kimberly’s origin as we finally saw how Drakkon turned her into the Ranger Slayer. The tension Parrott created in when Coinless Kimberly and Drakkon finally came face-to-face in these flashback scenes was clear.

Parrott added to his scene by having Coinless Kimberly call Drakkon by his name “Tommy.” It showed that these two have a deep past with each other even with how much the Coinless Universe diverge from the normal Power Rangers timeline. This made Drakkon using a spell like the one Rita used on him during the “Green With Evil” saga come as an even more evil move.

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Now with Coinless Kimberly breaking free from Drakkon’s control Parrott was able to develop how much weight she is carrying since she still knows what she did as his Ranger Slayer. That weight of all she had done clearly weighed on her when she spoke to the present-day Kimberly and Matthew Cook in two seperate scenes. Her words carried a sense of guilt for all she did under Drakkon’s control. Now everything she did in this issue was with the idea of fixing everything, even if it meant she would be wiped out from history.

One of the biggests move that Coinless Kimberly makes is confronting the present-day Tommy Oliver before he becomes the Green Ranger. This confrontation can be something that changes the way the Shattered Grid event goes since the Ranger Slayer showed Tommy his future, including his death at the hand of Drakkon. Seeing these events, along with an image of Tommy as the White Power Ranger, could create another divergent point as we could see Tommy’s introduction to the team in Go Go Power Rangers play out differently.

It was also interesting to see Grace Sterling show up at the end of Go Go Power Rangers #12 to confront the Ranger Slayer. Since we do know that Kimberly in her Ranger Slayer costume is leading a new group of Power Rangers this could play into that. Given Grace’s dialogue it won’t be surprising to see this meeting being the way that Coinless Kimberly enters the main Shattered Grid event. It would definitely add to how Grace has been presented since she is the one who is helping lead the Power Rangers final strike on Drakkon.

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As for the rest of Go Go Power Rangers #12, Parrott did a great job showing that the Power Rangers can’t just easily eliminate monsters with the Megazord. Being outnumbered was clearly something that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were not ready for. It adds to how this is a time period were the five core Power Rangers are still growing as a team and learning how to fight efficiently.

This led to a fantastic mark out moment as we saw Coinless Kimberly merged the Power Rangers’ Megazord and her Gravezord to form the Mega-Gravezord. Everything about how the Mega-Gravezord looked badass. Not only did it look badass but seeing how powerful the Mega-Gravezord was a stunning display of power. This merger of different zords opens up an exciting opportunity to see other types of Megazord mergers since Coinless Kimberly is leading different Power Rangers post-Shattered Grid.

The Power Rangers taking out Rita’s two monsters was a good way to segway to what Rita plans next. As Parrott showed us, this latest plan failing now has driven Rita to do something that she was hoping not to do so soon. While it is not clear what that is it is a good opportunity to start seeing how Rita was able to obtain the Green Ranger Power Coin. That is something that was never actually explained and would add depth to what we know from the “Green With Evil” saga. It would also make sense since Parrott brought Tommy into this story.

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As for the Power Rangers themselves, wrapping up the storyline with Jason’s dad was an important one to close out. This is a sub-plot that Parrott has done a good job in developing over time. While it wasn’t with the rest of the Rangers, this was a good showcase of how Jason is coming into his own as he called his dad out so that they can be a more united family. This adds further depth to Jason’s character as we continue to see his comic book counterpart break away from just being the stereotypical leader.

And building of the Ranger Slayer arc, this was another big issue for Kimberly who continues to be pushed in more of a direction where she is taking her destiny in her hands. As the Ranger Slayer told her, Kimberly is now making more choices for herself. What will be interesting about this is how much Kimberly takes what her Coinless counterpart to heart. Even with the ending involving Matthew we see that Kimberly was thinking about what her counterpart said and it made it that final scene much harder for her.

Speaking of Matthew, Parrott has done a surprisingly good job breaking Matthew away from just being Kimberly’s boyfriend. Having Matthew play the role of what happens to those around the Rangers as the core five kept their heroic lives a secret was a great one to play. It shows there are consequences to the Power Rangers keeping their hero lives secret from those they love. It is a tough decision to make but one they feel is best to keep everyone safe. If this is the last we see of Matthew, it is a strong exit for him as it pushes more development for the five Power Rangers.

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Further elevating Parrott’s story was the strong artwork Dan Mora delivered throughout Go Go Power Rangers #12. With how action heavy this issue was Mora was able to shine as he got to show off with the Megazord fight. His design for the Mega-Gravezord added to how big this moment felt. He also added to how emotional the scenes for Jason, Kimberly and Matthew were as they each got some strong character moments in this issue.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Go Go Power Rangers #12 delivered a strong close to “The Ranger Slayer” arc. Ryan Parrott did a great job adding more layers to the Shattered Grid event with how he developed the Coinless Universe Kimberly Hart as she broke free from Drakkon’s control. That development along with some key scenes for the Power Rangers, including a powerful ending, made Go Go Power Rangers #12 one of the best issues of this series.